How much data do you require before you accept something as "fact"? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 month ago by Arkouda@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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[-] bitcrafter@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

Quoth my earlier comment:

obviously if the spring does not exist then it cannot be drunk from.

[-] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago

Phrased in a different way: if you see something that looks like a spring in the desert, then that might not mean that you will be able to drink from it, but you can be certain that, in that moment, you are seeing something that looks like a spring in the desert.

Phrased in a different way: if you see something that looks like a ~~spring~~ unicorn in the desert, then that might not mean that you will be able to ~~drink from~~ pet it, but you can be certain that, in that moment, you are seeing something that looks like a ~~spring~~ unicorn in the desert.

[-] bitcrafter@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

Congratulations, you have just quoted me saying that the spring might not be real, and the "might" is there because, if you are lucky, then you may very well have been fortunate enough to have come across an actual oasis in the distance rather than a mere mirage.

The second quote is your own fabrication and has nothing to do with anything I have argued because unicorns, unlike oases, are not even sometimes really there.

[-] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago

The fact that there is word for this experience demonstrates that the experience itself objectively exists, which only serves to prove my point.

[-] bitcrafter@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

Yes, that word being mirage, which is so objectively real that you can take a photograph of it:

In contrast to a hallucination, a mirage is a real optical phenomenon that can be captured on camera, since light rays are actually refracted to form the false image at the observer's location. What the image appears to represent, however, is determined by the interpretive faculties of the human mind. For example, inferior images on land are very easily mistaken for the reflections from a small body of water.

[-] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago

There is a word for "Unicorn" as well.

[-] bitcrafter@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

A "Unicorn" is not a kind of experience; seeing a mirage is. Hence, "word for this experience".

[-] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago

I would imagine that seeing a Unicorn would be quite the experience.

[-] bitcrafter@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

I don't doubt that someone, somewhere, has had the very real experience of seeing a hallucinated Unicorn while eating random cacti in the desert! It would be ironic if this experience ended up distracting them so much that they walked straight past the very real oasis they were searching for, resulting in a very real tragic death by dehydration.

[-] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago

Why do you believe humans need anything exterior to hallucinate?

Why is the Unicorn being imagined different than the oasis to you?

[-] bitcrafter@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

Fantastic, this provides another teachable moment for you! 😀

My comment presented something called a hypothetical situation. It is an example of how particular circumstances can lead to a specific outcome. The key takeaway is that--and I recognize this can be confusing!--it does not make any claims outside the details contained within the hypothetical.

This answers both of your questions, but let me make it easy for you: I don't, and because I made these circumstances be true in this hypothetical situation.

[-] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago

Even if it is an illusion created by the brain, does that make it any less existent?

[-] bitcrafter@programming.dev -1 points 1 month ago

If your brain creates the illusion of a unicorn, then the presence of the illusion is real, even if the unicorn is not.

[-] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Whatever you say buddy.

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this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2025

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